{"id":115726,"date":"2020-11-23T10:37:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=115726"},"modified":"2020-11-23T10:51:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:51:22","slug":"ucf-researcher-zeroes-in-on-critical-point-for-improving-superconductors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-researcher-zeroes-in-on-critical-point-for-improving-superconductors\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Researcher Zeroes in on Critical Point for Improving Superconductors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The search for a superconductor that can work under less extreme conditions than hundreds of degrees below zero or at pressures like those near the center of the Earth is a quest for a revolutionary new power – one that\u2019s needed for magnetically levitating cars and ultra-efficient power grids of the future.<\/p>\n

But developing this kind of \u201croom temperature\u201d superconductor is a feat science has yet to achieve.<\/p>\n

A University of Central Florida researcher, however, is working to move this goal closer to realization, with some of his latest research published recently in the journal Communications Physics \u2013 Nature<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the study, Yasuyuki Nakajima, an assistant professor in UCF\u2019s Department of Physics<\/a>, and co-authors showed they could get a closer look at what is happening in \u201cstrange\u201d metals.<\/p>\n

These \u201cstrange\u201d metals are special materials that show unusual temperature behavior in electrical resistance. The \u201cstrange\u201d metallic behavior is found in many high-temperature superconductors when they are not in a superconducting state, which makes them useful to scientists studying how certain metals become high-temperature superconductors.<\/p>\n

This work is important because insight into the quantum behavior of electrons in the \u201cstrange\u201d metallic phase could allow researchers to understand a mechanism for superconductivity at higher temperatures.<\/p>\n